Accenture toner scandal nets $1.7M settlement

It is a scandal that is sure to reverberate through mailrooms across the country. The whispers must be deafening by now.

Accenture has agreed to pay the federal government $1.7 million to settle allegations that it overcharged the Army for... dramatic pause… copy toner.

The horror. What’s next? Staples? Paper clips?

To their credit, Accenture reported itself to the Army after an internal investigation discovered the issue.

According to the Justice Department, the company said the overcharges were caused by a subcontractor on a contract who “surreptitiously” made unauthorized purchases of copy toner.

So how much toner can you buy for $1.7 million?

Using our office Xerox as a test case, I found that a single box of toner with four cartridges cost about $169. Each cartridge is good for about 5,000 copies.

So $1.7 million would buy 10,322 boxes. That comes out to 10,322 boxes times 20,000 copies for a grand total of 206,456 copies.

That might be enough to get Rob Schneider back on Saturday Night Live.

The Justice Department has not responded to requests for additional details. Accenture released a statement saying that they reported the matter as soon as the company became aware of it.

"We conducted a thorough investigation and disclosed the results of that investigation to the government," an Accenture spokesperson said.

The government also said in a release that Accenture cooperated. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Army Criminal Investigation Command coordinated the government’s investigation.

The case was a civil proceeding and $1.7 million payment settles the allegation. There has been no finding of a civil liability on Accenture’s part.